Dirty Letters(34)

“Have you had any serious girlfriends?”

My jaw clenched. “I thought I did, but it turned out I didn’t. Haley lived with me for about three months. She was an aspiring singer. On my last tour, I decided to surprise her and come home between shows when I hadn’t been scheduled to. I found her in bed with my forty-five-year-old agent.”

“Wow. I’m sorry. That’s awful.”

“Yeah. That was just the beginning of finding out a bunch of dark shit about the people I thought cared about me.”

Luca stroked my forearm. “I guess I can understand why you wanted to keep your current life a secret from me.”

This conversation had taken a turn toward depressing. I reminded myself that we only had a little time together; the clock was ticking. I scratched at the stubble on my chin. “I have an idea. Do you remember that little game we used to play as teenagers? The one where we would tell each other a couple of true things and a lie and we’d have to figure out which was which.”

Luca grinned. “Two truths and a lie. How could I forget? Like when you got your driver’s license and thought you were so cool going to the drive-through line at McDonald’s the first time, and you placed your entire order yelling into the trash receptacle?”

I laughed. I had forgotten all about that. Figures Luca hadn’t. “That’s the game. The winner used to have to send the other stickers, if I remember correctly.”

“I stickered an entire closet door because I beat you so often.”

“I used to let you win, cocky girl,” I lied.

“Sure you did.”

“I’m thinking it’s time for a rematch. We only have a day and a half to get to know each other again. What better way than to play our old game?”

“I’m down for that. But I don’t have any stickers with me, on the off chance you actually get something right.”

“That’s okay. We’re not going to be playing for stickers this time.”

“We’re not? What exactly are we playing for, Mr. Quinn?”

“Kisses. Winner gets to pick where they want to give them.”





CHAPTER 15

LUCA


The way I saw it, no matter who won this little game, I was going to come out a winner if it ended in a kiss from Griffin.

We got comfy on the couch.

“I’ll go first,” he said. “Two truths and a lie.” He rubbed his hands together. “Okay. I once won a pair of Elton John’s old knickers on eBay. Also, during one of my earlier concerts, I blanked out and forgot the words to one of the songs in front of thousands of people. Lastly, for your consideration . . . I haven’t spoken to my father in two years.”

I let the choices sink in as I massaged my temples. “I feel like this is sort of a trick. The knickers thing sounds so bizarre that it almost has to be meant to seem like a lie, but really it’s the truth. While I don’t want to believe you haven’t spoken to your dad in that long, based on your past relationship with him, I’m afraid that’s possibly true as well. So I’m going to go with you forgetting the words to the song as being the lie.”

Griffin stared at me for a few seconds before making a sound that mimicked a buzzer.

“I’m wrong?”

“Yep.” He laughed.

“Damn. I’m losing my touch.”

“What would I want with an old pair of Elton John’s knickers? That was the lie.”

“I don’t know! You seemed to enjoy perusing eBay before your account got shut down, and I remember you used to like him a lot when we were younger. So . . . it made a little sense?”

“I like him. But not that much!”

I wiped my eyes from the tears of laughter before turning serious when I said, “Okay, so . . . oh my gosh. Two years since you’ve spoken to your dad, Griffin?”

A frown washed over his face. “Yeah.”

“Why?”

He blew out a breath. “Well . . . you remember he never supported my musical aspirations growing up. That never really changed. It wasn’t until I made it big out here that he ever started to acknowledge that I might have made the right decision. Anyway, our relationship had always been strained because of how he treated my mum before she died, but even so, I still tried to keep the peace. That ended when he gave an interview to a British tabloid for a large sum of money. The article was titled something like, ‘Cole Archer’s Father Spills All His Secrets’ or some garbage. Anyway, I stopped talking to him after that.”

That hurt my heart. Griffin’s dad was the only immediate family he had left after his mother died. I could relate to how awful it felt to be an only child and have almost no one. It must be a different kind of pain, though, to have your parent betray you.

“I’m really sorry, Griff.”

He shrugged. I could tell from the way he sucked in his jaw that talking about it had upset him. “His loss. Maybe someday I’ll get over it and call him, but that day hasn’t come yet.”

I reached for his hand and squeezed it. Touching him even in this innocent way felt absolutely electrifying.

“Anyway . . . ,” he said. “The night I forgot the words to the song was recorded and is now on YouTube. You can find it if you want the proof. Early on, when the fame had gone to my head, I’d gotten caught up pretty heavily in the drinking and partying. That concert was the last straw. The label threatened to boot me. Got my act together real fast after that embarrassment. Never drank before a show again.”